Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ters have been filed against Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny and LM­CS Lim­it­ed seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for the fam­i­lies of two divers killed in­side a pipeline last Feb­ru­ary.

The let­ters were filed on the same day Jus­tice Den­nis Mor­ri­son and sub-sea spe­cial­ist Gre­go­ry Wil­son re­ceived their in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment as com­mis­sion­ers for the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry (CoE) in­to the div­ing tragedy.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at his San Fer­nan­do of­fice yes­ter­day, at­tor­ney Prakash Ra­mad­har said the ac­tion has been filed on be­half of Aliyah Mary Hen­ry, the daugh­ter of div­er Yusuf Hen­ry and the fam­i­ly of Fyzal Kur­ban, which in­cludes Michael, Nicholas, Brit­ney and Cel­isha Kur­ban.

“We will be tak­ing steps al­so to seek an in­ter­im pay­ment as we file the ac­tion. We have giv­en them 21 days to re­spond as to whether they ac­cept li­a­bil­i­ty. Iif they do, then we can move to ne­go­ti­a­tion for com­pen­sa­tion.

“The Kur­bans have a sis­ter who is study­ing in Cana­da and it costs $300,000 per year for stu­dent fees and liv­ing ex­pens­es,” Ra­mad­har re­vealed.

He said there was a four-year statute of lim­i­ta­tion to file le­gal ac­tion.

“We are not wait­ing on the sit­ting of the com­mis­sion, we not wait­ing on the out­come of de­lib­er­a­tions of com­mis­sion, they have no au­thor­i­ty to ap­por­tion li­a­bil­i­ty and is­sue dam­ages and com­pen­sa­tion. It is for the court to do,” he said.

Ra­mad­har al­so not­ed that a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter will al­so be filed against the T&T Coast Guard in the fu­ture.

“We have seen the con­duct of the Coast Guard. The divers were alive when the Coast Guard was on the scene. It was they, to­geth­er with oth­ers, un­der whose in­struc­tions we will find out in court who pre­vent­ed the sav­ing of lives and they must an­swer for it,” Ra­mad­har said.

He al­so slammed Paria for say­ing it has not ac­cept­ed li­a­bil­i­ty for the tragedy.

“It is dis­gust­ing for Paria to sug­gest that they have no re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and we are say­ing the court will de­cide. They will fight it out be­tween them­selves, LM­CS and Paria and the Coast Guard, be­cause at the end of the day there is no doubt about the li­a­bil­i­ty, of each and every one of the en­ti­ties we will be su­ing,” Ra­mad­har said.

He said the pre-ac­tion pro­to­col will be the first step to es­tab­lish­ing li­a­bil­i­ty.

“No per­son who goes to work to earn a liv­ing ex­pects to die and when divers go to do a rou­tine thing, we ex­pect cer­tain pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures are tak­en and ac­ci­dents mit­i­gat­ed. We ex­pect steps and pro­ce­dures are put in place to en­sure they are res­cued,” Ra­mad­har said.

If the com­pa­nies ac­cept li­a­bil­i­ty, ne­go­ti­a­tions on com­pen­sa­tion would fol­low, Ra­mad­har said.

“We have asked for in­for­ma­tion which has not yet been pro­vid­ed to us from Paria. But we thought it fit and prop­er to stir the con­science of many to pro­ceed. We are us­ing an an­cient tech­nique in the courts of law, called res ip­sa lo­quitur,” Ra­mad­har said.

“That means sim­ply, ‘The Act speaks for it­self’.”

Ra­mad­har not­ed that LM­CS and Paria have been giv­en 21 days to re­spond, in­di­cat­ing ac­cep­tance of li­a­bil­i­ty.